"Bioboffin" wrote in message
...
Rupert (W.Yorkshire) wrote:
I dug up a tropaeolum ciliatum
that was withering and near death.
The roots were covered in small white thread like millipede type
things. They were about 1/2 inch long and could move fairly quickly.
They had a small head and many pairs of legs and the little beasts
had devoured a majority of the roots.
An ideas what this pest is??

Could they be Symphilids? See link:

http://soilbugs.massey.ac.nz/symphyla.php

Although this link is for a New Zealand site, there are certainly billions
of Symphids in the UK too.

That's thing I thought he saw. Translucent, so you can see the alimentary
..... yeuk. Isn't a millipede a symphid?